Since the mid-1970's, the use of optical fibers to transmit data has supplanted the use of conventional wires for a number of reasons. First, signal degradation or loss is much less for electromagnetic signals transmitted in optical fibers than for electrical signals transmitted over conventional wires. Second, optical fibers provide a much higher bandwidth than conventional wires. For example, a single Cu or Al wire can only transmit one electrical signal at a time, while a single optical fiber can transmit about 100 or more electromagnetic signals at a time. In other words, it takes 100 wires to transmit 100 data-encoded electrical signals, while a single optical fiber can transmit 100 data-encoded electromagnetic signals. Finally, because optical fibers can be drawn to smaller diameters than copper wire, more optical fibers can be bundled into a cross-sectional diameter than copper wires.
A source device transmits data to a destination device over optical fibers by first segmenting the data into packets which are then stored in a memory integrated circuit (“memory chip”). The memory chip comprises a large number of memory cells that can each be used to store a single bit of information. Each packet is then encoded in an electromagnetic signal and sent over an optical fiber network to the destination device. However, the parallel electromagnetic-signal-transmission benefits provided by optical fibers may be offset by the manner in which data is read from and written to the memory cells of the memory chips located at both the source and destination, because the bits comprising each data packet can only be read from and written to memory cells in relatively small numbers.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic representation of a typical optical-fiber data transmission between a source 102 and a destination 104. In FIG. 1, the source 102 includes a stack of data 106 to be transmitted to the destination 104. For example, the source 102 can be a video camera and the destination 104 can be a PC or other video displaying device. The source 102 prepares the data 106 for transmission to the destination 104 by breaking the data into packets 107-112 and storing the packets 107-112 in a memory chip 114 that serves as buffer. The memory chip 114 may be random access memory (“RAM”) that temporality stores the packets 107-112 before the packets are sent to the destination 104. Each packet receives a header represented by a shaded region, such as header 116. The header includes the address of the destination 104, such as a TCP/IP address. The source 102 encodes the packets into electromagnetic signals by reading the bits stored in the memory cells in relatively small, such as 8, 16, or 64 bits at a time, and transmits the electromagnetic signals over an optical fiber network 118 to the destination 104. The destination 104 also includes a memory chip 120 that serves as a buffer for temporary storage of the packets 107-112. However, the bits comprising the packets are also written to the memory chip in relatively small numbers.
Although the optical fibers used to transmit packets between source and destination devices typically have a high bandwidth, the memory chips located at the source and destination slow down the rate of transmission because the corresponding memory chips read and write bits to each memory cell in relatively small numbers. Physicists, engineers, and computer scientists have recognized a need for systems that can speed up process of reading data from and writing data to memory chips.